Mormon girl Leesie has life figured out--until devastated Michael lands in her high school. CAYMAN SUMMER is the third novel in Michael and Leesie's romance that began with TAKEN BY STORM. My readers rallied around me—giving me the guts to release UNBROKEN CONNECTION (Book #2) independently. I launched this blog because I wanted them with me every step as I wrote CAYMAN SUMMER. I posted the novel as I wrote each scene. Now this blog is devoted to all things Michael and Leesie.

Pages

Thursday, June 14, 2012

YES!!!!! We're releasing an all new Taken by Storm ebook. And here's the brand new cover. This is Storm's third cover. I love this one. It feels much more like Michael and Leesie to me. What do you think?

So, why a new ebook? I get to have my talented son, Rob, design a new cover, for one. Plus, the old Taken by Storm ebook is unreadable unless you download it to a big computer screen. (Picture me with a cartoon red face and steam blasting out of my ears.) Not good. Penguin still controls that one. My wonderful agent convinced them to return the rights to me, so I can produce this new ebook that has fully scalable fonts and works on all devices--from smart phones to iPods to Kindles. All you need is a free Kindle app. We'll release a paperback with this cover, too.

I added a special bonus poem, "Airport Good-bye." It fits between Storm and Unbroken Connection. I wrote it for Michelle at Windowpane Memoirs who launched the "Don't Break the Connection" blog campaign.

The ebook is not on sale yet, but you (or a friend because I know you all have copies of Storm) can score a free ebook if you participate in Kathy Sokol's book bomb for her new ebook, Caribbean Crossroads, today. Scroll down for details. There's lots more great free gifts, too. This is my first ever book bomb! Let's do our best to make it rock.

Celebrate the release of CARIBBEAN CROSSROADS by Connie Sokol with a
special price today!

I have a special offer for you—it’s
only good for today—Thursday, June 14, 2012. Purchase CARIBBEAN CROSSROADS from Amazon.com for only $1.99.
Then email RachelletheWriter@gmail.com with your order confirmation/receipt. Once Rachelle
receives your order details, she will email you an amazing selection of
over 10 free gifts from Connie Sokol and
several others!

Here’s what’s in store
when you purchase CARIBBEAN CROSSROADS today:(All items will be emailed to
you from Rachelle after she receives your order confirmation.) You can purchase
the Kindle Edition HERE for $1.99 today! Paperback also available.

To
celebrate the launch of her new romance novel, Connie Sokol- author, speaker,
and life coach is offering two incredible free gifts when you purchase CARIBBEAN CROSSROADS TODAY.

·You’ll receive a free Ebook of Life is Too Short for One Hair Color--
A humorous collection of anecdotes and helpful tips to survive being a woman,
wife, and mother. Laugh a little, lighten up a lot, and take something from
each story to practically and positively help you change your life and
perspective–one tip at a time.

·Mp3 file of Get Organized -- Need extra hours in the day? You can find
them today! Learn how to realistically streamline repetitive tasks such as bill
paying, laundry, meal planning and cooking to create FREE hours for what you
need most. Discover a fabulous organization formula to use in ANY area of your
life for more effective time management. Get organized and stay organized to
enjoy a more fulfilling life!

·Shear Luck free ebook by Heather Justesen—a
romance novella-- When salon manager Chelsea Robison walks into the restaurant
next door, she's surprised to run into her teenage crush Vaughn Krenshaw.
Though he is still mourning his wife's death, he can't help but take a chance
and ask her out. As things start getting serious, family pressure about dating
again, and rumors from his past surface, making the chance for happily ever
after look farther than ever.

When
Keil's father succumbs to dementia, she disguises herself as a man to
save her family. But her quest is threatened when she accidentally bonds with a
man who has traded all his wealth and land for the addictive drug, tam.
Furious, she rejects her new bondmate and takes control of the landholding that
she believes will keep her family safe. But the tam is spreading and will
soon destroy not only her land but also all life if she cannot find a way to
stop it. Like it or not, she's forced to team up with her bondmate to save
their world.

·Angela Morrison is the author of Sing me to
Sleep, 2010 Goodreads Choice Nomineeand USA Best Books 2011
winner for Young Adult Fiction, and the critically acclaimed Taken
by Storm saga. Her free gift: All-new Taken by Stormebook.

Mormon girl, Leesie, has life figured out
until devastated Michael lands on her doorstep. Originally published by
Penguin, this intimate novel is a rare journey into a Mormon teen's inner life.
Ebook includes a never before published scene and free chapter from Unbroken
Connection (Book #2). Follow Angela's new "liv2writ" blog
at http://angelamorrison.blogspot.com.

When a photo shoot ends in tragedy, Kira discovers her best friend, Lydia, has
been keeping a secret. Knowing the truth, and accepting it, will change Kira’s
life forever and thrust her into a world of ancient curses, magical objects,
and savage enemies. What happens next will challenge everything Kira knows
about her world, herself and the shape-shifting warrior she’s falling in love
with.

Three free ebooks from
award-winning author Karen Hoover—
The Sapphire Flute
( Book 1 of The Wolfchild Saga)
Seven Keys and seven guardians born to save a dying world. AND

·Amy Chandler’s free
gift offering--Where are your photos? Sign up today for a FREE account and get
those photos out of a box, off your computer and into 100% customizable
beautiful books your whole family will cherish!

Why
a book bomb? A
book bomb is when a large group of people purchase a certain book on a specific
day on Amazon. This pushes the book's popularity up the Amazon ranks, which in
turn gives the book more visibility to Amazon shoppers. That’s the goal today
for CARIBBEANCROSSROADS. Grab your copy and help us celebrate! Just remember to email Rachelle with your order receipt!

So feel free to pass this on to
your friends and shout it out on FB, Twitter, etc. We’d like as many people as
possible to benefit from these bonus gifts. Connie is giving an extra gift to
you just for spreading the word about the book bomb. Visit 8basics.com and
click on the green button to share for a FREE audio download
of "CoachCast: Joy In Womanhood"

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I've got some exciting news that I'm bursting to tell you. Tune in tomorrow for the big reveal.

For now, enjoy how Michael transformed from questions in my brain to words on the page. He surprised me!

Vermont College and Answersfrom "Storm's Story" on www.angela-morrison.com
Monday, April 14, 2008

In July of 2002, I started to discover the answers to the questions that kept swirling in my brain.

The summer before, I’d gone to SCBWI’s LA conference. I came away impressed that I needed to professionalize my writing skills and start taking myself seriously as an artist. I began searching and discovered Vermont College’s amazing low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. Here was a master’s program, devoted to the children’s/YA field, that I could do while being a mom in London, Ontario.

The toughest thing about the application was finding a writer to recommend me. I had zero contacts and connections. No critique group. No SCBWI friends in Canada. My academic contacts were stone cold. But I sat by an lovely woman in LA who had given me her card and lots of encouragement, Naomia Zucker (BENNO’S BEAR). She was kind enough to write a recommendation for me. Voila! I got in.

The keystone of the VC experience is the two weeks spent in residency prior to the intense semester spent studying one on one with some of the best writers in our field. My first residency was July 2002. I was nervous and scared and fell absolutely in love with everyone and everything (except the mean girl clique and the dorm beds). The lectures, the workshop experience, my wonderful classmates. Wow. Overnight I had a writing community. In that very first residency I got to hear Katherine Patterson, Karen Hesse, Tobin Anderson, Norma Fox Mazer, and many more.

The graduate assistants ran a session to introduce the new students to free writing. We were told to remember a sound, to put our pen to the page, and not stop until they called time.

Michael’s voice flowed out of my pen and filled up the page. Here’s what he said:

It’s just a rough free-write, but here it is. The first hint of the guy whose voice would haunt me with his story for months and months that turned to years and years.

This is the scan of the actual free write. I gave the original to BYU when I donated my papers to their special manuscript collection.

Since then, I've become a huge fan of free writes. I use them all the time--especially when I'm stuck. I give myself an assignment, put it beside my bed, and in the morning right after I wake up pick it up and scribble away. Visit my new liv2writ blog for a rambling post on free writing.

Monday, June 11, 2012

One of the miracles of creating fiction is characters. None have haunted me quite like Michael. Here's how he came to inhabit my brain.

Hurricane on the Horizonfrom "Storm's Story" on angela-morrison.comThurs., April 10, 2008

A few years ago my husband and I were diving off Cozumel, Mexico. We had sunshine at first, but halfway through the trip the weather turned nasty. Dark skies. Rain. We still dove. Nothing much stops a boatful of determined divers.

This is me and my hubby on that trip.

We headed out in the rain, joking around and relaxing into the easy camaraderie that divers share. We started out with a deep wall dive. Darker than usual, but still cool.

In Cozumel, there are always currents. Rather than fight them, divers float with the flow and the boat follows. When our tanks empty, the guide releases an orange marker and the boat, meets us up top. You don’t have to work very hard. Just float and enjoy the scenery. I tend to get cold if I’m not kicking. I’m a swimmer at heart so I like to kick.

After the first dive, we huddled in the boat getting rained on. My teeth chattered away. We’d gone deep, about a hundred feet, so we had to wait an hour to lower the amount of nitrogen in our blood before we could go down again. (Technical dive term: off-gassing. More than you wanted to know? Sorry. I won’t tell you about the guys peeing off the back.)

This is the boat we dove on in Cozumel

To the south of us the sky was a thick bank of wicked clouds. A newsy guy who had just arrived informed us that our rain and those clouds were what was left of a hurricane that had just hit Belize. “Category 4,” he said. “It hit a boat of divers, and they all drowned.”

None of us believed him. Divers don’t drown. And no one would be out in a hurricane. Rain, sure. But a hurricane? That’s insane.

He insisted it had happened. And he was right. A live-aboard boat docked in what they thought was a safe port. They were wrong.

Over the next several months, I followed the story closely. I found news articles on the internet and watched the memorial grow on the website of the dive club who had chartered the boat and lost so many. I felt a kinship with those dead divers. The clouds that killed them rained on me, too.

I began asking myself, “What if?” What if the only survivor of a similar fictional accident was a guy whose parents drowned. How did he survive? What happened to him after? Who would he live with now? Where would he go?